As the critical dimensions of semiconductor devices continue to get smaller, the number of processing steps used to create semiconductor devices has increased, and likewise, process times have increased. Moreover, clients are increasingly demanding the ability to perform pre- and post-processing of the wafers in relation to the main processing (e.g., etch, chemical vapor deposition), further increasing the number of configurations that a processing tool must facilitate.
In order to maintain throughput of a fabrication facility, more processing chambers may be needed. To accommodate the pre-processing and post-processing requirements, a wider variation in the types of chambers on a given tool may be needed. However, designing and qualifying new semiconductor processing equipment with additional processing chambers is a long and complicated endeavor.